Sermon delivered on 17 November 1957 at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church [the underlining in the text is mine]. Please find the time to browse through this amazing sermon. You will not be sorry.

I dedicate this to my many enemies (they know who they are) and I pray that, by God’s grace, I love them as Jesus calls me to do it. Kyrie eleison!

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I want to turn your attention to this subject: “Loving Your Enemies.” It’s so basic to me because it is a part of my basic philosophical and theological orientation—the whole idea of love, the whole philosophy of love. In the fifth chapter of the gospel as recorded by Saint Matthew, we read these very arresting words flowing from the lips of our Lord and Master: “Ye have heard that it has been said, ‘Thou shall love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.’ But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.”

Certainly these are great words, words lifted to cosmic proportions. And over the centuries, many persons have argued that this is an extremely difficult command. Many would go so far as to say that it just isn’t possible to move out into the actual practice of this glorious command. They would go on to say that this is just additional proof that Jesus was an impractical idealist who never quite came down to earth. So the arguments abound. But far from being an impractical idealist, Jesus has become the practical realist. The words of this text glitter in our eyes with a new urgency. Far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, this command is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. Yes, it is love that will save our world and our civilization, love even for enemies.Continue reading “Martin Luther King jr – Loving Your Enemies – Sermon Fragments”

In 1964, US President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. This act ended racial segregation in public places, theatres, churches, hotels and hospitals and granted whites and Afro-Americans equal rights to employment. This article is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the adoption of this act and to the person who served as the beacon for the civil rights movement.

“King’s Men”

Our airplane took off from Tbilisi airport with a swoosh. The sky was clear. Looking out of the window, one could see the sun-scorched landscape below and patches of fluffy clouds above.

1. Does your faith encourage an active and prophetic stance towards creating justice in this world; or does it explicitly or implicitly encourage a complacency towards inequality here on earth with the idea that faith is more spiritual than social and that it will all work out in the afterlife?